Executive Bios

Jason Rosenthal

CEO

Jason Rosenthal is the CEO of Lytro, where he applies more than 20 years of operations and product experience to lead day-to-day company operations and strategy.

Prior to joining Lytro, Jason was an Operating Executive at Silver Lake, a global technology investment firm. Previously, Rosenthal was CEO of Ning, which was acquired by Glam Media. At Ning, Rosenthal led the company’s successful transformation from a free, ad-supported service to a premium subscription model. Before joining Ning, Rosenthal held executive positions at HP and Opsware (formerly Loudcloud) and led product teams at AOL and Netscape. Rosenthal began his career working for Rebuild LA, the inner city economic development organization founded in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots by Peter Ueberroth.

Jason developed a passion for photography and visual storytelling at an early age when he started making stop motion animation films with his Dad's super 8 camera and spent hours trying to recreate the attack on the Death Star scene from Star Wars in his back yard.

Rosenthal holds a B.A. in history from Pomona College where he also serves on the board of trustees and he received his M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Ren Ng, Ph.D.

Founder & Executive Chairman

Ren Ng is the Founder and Executive Chairman at Lytro, where he helps drive company, technology and product vision, and champions the Lytro brand globally.

Lytro's technology is based on Ren's Ph.D. dissertation on light field photography, which won the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award and Stanford University’s Arthur Samuel Award. As a technologist, Ren's research gave him the clear perspective that light field technology would eventually deliver the most powerful cameras we have ever seen. As an avid photographer, he also had a vision that it would fundamentally enrich the artistic possibilities of photography by making them interactive and immersive. Ren founded Lytro with the dream of putting light field cameras in the hands of everyday people, and growing a company that would bring the full benefits of this photographic transformation to society.

Ren holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in computer science and a B.S. in mathematical and computational science from Stanford University. He has been recognized with the PMDA Technical Achievement Award, R.I.T.'s Imaging Hall of Fame, the Selwyn Award from the Royal Photographic Society, MIT Tech Review's TR35 and Entrepreneur of the Year, Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business, and Silicon Valley Journal's 40 under 40.

Kurt Akeley

CTO

Kurt Akeley is CTO at Lytro, where he applies his knowledge in computer science and optics to advance light-field rendering technology.

A pioneer in the field of computer graphics and a founding member and former SVP and CTO of Silicon Graphics (SGI), Kurt has helped develop innovative products like SGI’s RealityEngine and the OpenGL graphics system. Prior to Lytro, he served as Principal Researcher and GM at Microsoft Research in Silicon Valley and in Asia.

Kurt built what may have been the world's second laser printer, as an undergraduate project at the University of Delaware, and the printer was used as the EE department printer for several years after.

Kurt earned his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University and his B.E.E. from the University of Delaware. In 2005, he was awarded membership in the National Academy of Engineering. SIGGRAPH honored him with the Computer Graphics Achievement Award in 1995, and he’s also been inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Azmat Ali

Vice President
Marketing

Azmat Ali is Vice President Marketing, where he drives Lytro’s branding and Go-To-Market strategy and oversees execution of corporate marketing activities globally.

Prior to Lytro, Azmat was Vice President of Brand Development and Marketing at Ultimate Ears, where he helped transition the company to the mobile music market. He also built Logitech’s mobile and tablet business and spent almost 15 years at HP in the Digital Imaging and Printing Divisions, serving on the product marketing team that developed HP’s first digital cameras and photo printers.

Azmat was born in Kenya and has lived in every continent. He loves being on a golf course anywhere in the world with his wife and three children, although these days he’s more likely to be caddying for one of his sons than actually playing.

He holds an MBA from Imperial College, University of London and a Bachelors Degree in Electronic Systems Engineering from Kingston University, London.

Dan Morgan

Vice President
Finance

Dan Morgan is VP of Finance at Lytro, where he provides overall company financial governance and manages the accounting, financial planning, treasury, and tax functions.

Prior to Lytro, Dan served as Controller at Philips Lumileds, the world’s leading provider of power LEDs. Previously, Dan was the VP Finance for Force10 Networks helping to guide a successful exit through the sale of the company to Dell. Earlier in his career, Dan served in a variety of finance management roles at JDSU and Cisco Systems.

Dan is a former collegiate swimmer, and stays fit by training for triathlons. He hopes to convince his teenage son to train with him for his next race.

Dan holds a MBA from Purdue University Krannert School of Management.

Vanita Wells

Vice President
Customer Operations

Vanita Wells is VP of Customer Operations at Lytro, where she ensures a high quality end-to-end customer experience for all Lytro users.

After beginning her career at Apple, Vanita founded and led her own supply chain consulting business, Eclipse Group, which was named one of Silicon Valley’s fastest growing private companies two years in a row. She then went on to establish global service operations for Handspring and, prior to joining Lytro, served as Vice President, Support and Services for mobile computing specialist OQO.

Vanita is a former nationally-ranked swimmer, and finds every opportunity to camp, hike, water ski and pursue the active outdoors with her family.

Vanita earned her B.S. and M.S. in industrial engineering from Stanford University.

Mariana Antcheva

General Counsel

Mariana Antcheva is General Counsel at Lytro, where she guides IP strategy and serves as trusted advisor on all things legal.

Prior to Lytro, Mariana served as a Corporate Lawyer at Fenwick & West, where she represented over 50 Silicon Valley startups and several public companies on a wide range of legal issues, from financings, IPOs, to mergers and acquisitions. Guiding technology startups to success is in Mariana’s blood; her very first job was with her father’s computerized automation business in Bulgaria.

Mariana regularly volunteers her time and expertise through pro bono legal services to a number of local organizations, and she is a rabid Star Wars fan of episodes IV-VI.

Mariana graduated summa cum laude from Santa Clara University School of Law.

Omer Cohen

Chief People Officer

Omer Cohen is Chief People Officer at Lytro, where he manages HR, Administration and Facilities and ensures Lytro is building a great workplace.

Omer is the former President of the Great Place to Work Institute, the global HR advisory firm in 40 countries known for Choosing Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in America. Omer began his career with Deloitte Consulting, later served in leadership roles at human capital software firms DigitalThink and Workforcelogic, and most recently ran an independent consulting practice helping companies like Facebook, Google, Autodesk and others with leadership, culture and organizational development.

In his spare time, Omer enjoys rocking out on his drums, trying to compete with younger, faster soccer players on Sundays and spending time with his 12 and 13-yr old daughters.

He holds a BA in Economics from Brown University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Stan Jirman

Vice President
Software Engineering

Stan Jirman is Vice President of Software Engineering at Lytro where he oversees Firmware, QA and all “off-camera” software, including desktop, mobile and web.

Prior to Lytro, Stan spent 14 years at Apple in a variety of senior engineering roles. He was one of the founding members of the Aperture image processing and management software team, on the iOS team from the inception of the iPhone all the way to iOS 5, and most recently in charge of the Camera and Photos applications.

Stan is also a passionate traveler and photographer who spent months in Florida working closely with NASA documenting the last five Space Shuttle missions. Since the retirement of the Space Shuttle he now has more time to spend with his two small children, very much to his wife's delight.

Stan has a BS and MS degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Todd Roesler

Vice President
Hardware Engineering

Todd Roesler is Vice President of Hardware Engineering at Lytro, where he manages all “on-camera” engineering functions including product design, electrical and mechanical engineering and optical packaging and test.

Prior to Lytro, Todd worked at BlackBerry (Research in Motion), where he helped launch the RIM Chicago Design Center and led multiple BlackBerry product designs. Previously, Todd served in various technical and leadership roles at Motorola developing handheld products including the world’s first portable satellite mobile for the Iridium network, the first Motorola 3G UMTS handset, and multiple Razr family 3G products.

Todd is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Wisconsin and active member of several professional organizations including NSPE, IEEE, and SIDs. Todd enjoys mountain biking, hiking, running, and redeeming his always growing total of frequent flyer points to take awesome trips with his wife and two daughters.

Todd holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Marquette University.

Colvin Pitts

Director
Product Management

Colvin Pitts is Director of Product Management at Lytro, where he oversees product strategy and guides the product development process.

Colvin and Ren Ng met as college roommates, and Colvin joined Lytro as one of the original team members in 2007 where he was instrumental in the development of the Lytro camera. He has held a number of key roles at Lytro in the past, including head of engineering and image quality.

Colvin started his career as a software engineer at Stanford University when he decided to join dotcom startup eScene Networks where he worked on a video content management system. After returning and completing his schooling, he worked at Lockheed Martin in the Radical Innovation Technology Center, focusing on future technologies. He later started NorthwestEquestrian.com, an online portal for the equestrian community in the Pacific Northwest, prior to joining Lytro.

Outside of work, Colvin is an avid sculptor and photographer, a hard-core ultimate Frisbee player, and the proud father of a newborn son.

He holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Wesley Yun

Senior Director
Design

Wesley Yun is Senior Director of Design, where he leads our team of UI and UX Designers in shaping the user experience and visual design across all Lytro platforms and products.

Wesley has over 15 years of experience in design leadership roles. Most recently he was Creative Director at Samsung, where he helped build the Samsung Design America office in San Francisco and managed the team in charge of the visual direction and motion design for the entire studio. Prior, he was Director of Design at Motorola Mobility, Creative Director at RIM, Design Manager for Palm’s webOS team and Creative Director at Helio. He started his career working for design agencies such as Zentropy, Viant and the Designory on projects for clients such as Nissan, Sony and Sears.

Before going to college, Wesley was a professional event photographer and videographer, and admits to still having the occasional nightmare where he accidentally knocks over the wedding cake while shooting.

Jeff Hansen

Vice President
Global Sales

Jeff Hansen is Vice President Global Sales, where he oversees online, direct and partner sales channels worldwide for Lytro.

Jeff has over 20 years of demand generation and general management experience with technology and consumer product companies. Prior to joining Lytro, Jeff was co-founder of a strategic management consulting company where over the last six years he helped launch a number of consumer brands around the world. Jeff has also served as Head of International Sales for Astro Gaming and Skullcandy, Inc., VP International Sales for mobile accessory leader iFrogz, GM of EMEA Marketing at Belkin, and President of SaaS provider Optisel.

A former collegiate golfer, Jeff still loves play golf when he gets the chance. Jeff is also passionate about international travel, speaks 4 languages, and has lived in Europe for over 4 years.

Jeff obtained dual BA in Economics and International Relations at Utah State University and an International MBA from Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management.

Ariel Braunstein

Ariel has a long track record of building successful consumer software and hardware businesses. Prior to joining Lytro, Ariel Founded and served as CEO of Knowmia, a video platform for education. Ariel was also Co-Founder and Head of Products at Pure Digital Technologies, which developed the iconic Flip Video line of pocket camcorders that sold 7MM units in under 4 years and won IDSA’s Design of the Decade Award for “Most Appealing Consumer Solution.” When Pure Digital was acquired by Cisco in 2009, Ariel headed all products for Cisco's Consumer Products Division and oversaw Flip Video as well as networking devices and software from Linksys, Pure Networks and other consumer brands. Previously Ariel ran Interact Inc., a gaming platform startup out of Israel and led product development for FamilyWonder.com which was later sold to Sega of Japan.

Ariel is the son of a professional photographer, and still has vivid memories of crawling on film in his living room which doubled as a darkroom. Ariel grew up in Israel and currently resides in San Francisco with his wife and 8 year old.

John Maguire

Vice President
New Markets

John Maguire is Vice President, New Markets, where he defines future growth opportunities and forges strategic partnerships for Lytro across new markets and industries.

Prior to joining Lytro, John led operations, strategy, marketing and business development at Morta Security, a stealth mode venture backed cybersecurity startup that was acquired by Palo Alto Networks. John previously served as a strategy and business development executive at the KEYW Holding Corporation where he helped close a number of major company acquisitions, worked on Capitol Hill at the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) advising former Senator Olympia Snowe, and travelled the globe for over 5 years as a Naval Intelligence Officer.

John played soccer and rugby in college and continues to lace up his cleats and play on the weekends when he's not busy chasing after and taking photos of his 3 kids.

John received his undergraduate degree in political science from the US Naval Academy, and graduate degrees in business from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and policy from the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute.

Board of Directors

Patrick Chung

NEA

Jonathan Heiliger

North Bridge Venture Partners

Ben Horowitz

Andreesen Horowitz

Dr. Yi-Ren Ng

Founder and Executive Chairman
Lytro, Inc.

Mike Ramsay

Jason Rosenthal

President and CEO
Lytro, Inc.

Technical Advisory Board

Mark Horowitz

Chair Department of Electrical Engineering
Stanford University

Marc Levoy

Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Stanford University